How to Build 3 Types of Mobile App Notifications For An Online Marketplace?

Notifications are the must-have feature for almost any kind of mobile apps
and marketplaces these days. Various updates and reminders depend on this,
at first sight, a tiny feature. In this article we’d like to share with you
the following:

The specifics of different app notifications;. What kind of notification
would work the best for your B2B or B2C marketplace app?

Tips on how to how to build notification system your customers will love,
taking into consideration in-app messaging and mobile push
notifications best practices.

Before we show how to build a notification system, let’s start with random
types of mobile app notifications:

1. Push notifications (of course)

Push notifications are the very ‘rockstar’ of mobile notification system
these days. This kind of notifications has become popular with the rise of
smart devices but, actually, take their beginnings from the early 2000s.
Such notifications are used for various purposes in the apps of random
types. Remind user of to-do tasks, your friends’ birthday dates or the
future events - it’s by far not the complete list of push notifications’
functionality. What’s more, all of this reminder-updating-stuff is made on
the background, without the need to constantly check the app.

2. In-app messaging examples. How does in-app messaging work?

This is another known solution among the various types of mobile app
notifications. In-app messaging requires user’s in-app presence. Among
widespread in-app messaging examples there could be different offers,
marketing messages from app’s producer, account or personal info-related
notifications, and the list goes on.

At Apiko, we’ve dealt with the development of the Netherlands-based event
management marketplace app, called Meals Unite. It’s (primarily) a mobile
marketplace which allows you to arrange meal sessions by hosting your
friends or complete strangers to meet the new people, right at your home.
The product with such concept surely makes us get to know each other a bit
closer via live communication and food culture.

Take a look at how we’ve implemented in-app messaging examples mechanism in
Meals Unite:

What to pay attention to when comparing in-app notifications vs push
notifications

The truth to say, there’s no ‘better than this or that’ type of
notification. What you need to know that such project details, like
notifiers, should be in constant A/B testing. To make the most of the
effectiveness from notifications, there are several tips to get going with:

3. Other kinds of notifications (text message notification system and email
notification system)

The current types of mobile app notifications might be considered as the
secondary ones which emphasize on the important messages more intensively.
We can enlist here:

SMS alerts/ text messaging notifications. Such alerts might be
helpful when it comes to the events planning, reminders or promos.
As much as push notifications, this kind of notifier provides the
user with a quick info on their status without the urge to directly
interact with the app.

Email notifications, just like SMS alerts, but being sent right to
your mailbox. Email notification system, for the most part, is used
for onboard messages, offers and polls a company sends over their
customers’ database.

In-app messaging, email notifications, and SMS alerts system. How to build
notification system of 3-in-1 kind?

Next, we should specify the relation between notification type and send methods that we will use:

Now, we need to implement each send method (note: all functions share common interface):

Finally, we can implement the main function which is responsible for sending notifications (it will be used by client code):

Below you can find usage example of our new notification system:

How can the given approach benefit the development of various types of
mobile app notifications for your marketplace project?

Single function call for multiple send methods

Custom send methods per notification type

Built-in localization

Ability to render custom data (context) at notification text

Easy to use - only 3 arguments to send a notification via multiple
send methods.

Let’s make the final bright. Tips on how to build notification system that is catchy

There is no strictly determined rule what type of mobile app notification
to implement. You can give a try to all 4 notification kinds mentioned in
the article: push notifications, email notification system, text message
notification system, and use in-app messaging best practices.

Here are several tips on how to level up the customer engagement via
notifications, before we’ll move to this article’s completion:

Interact with user on more personalized level (to do this, and
avoid sending senseless notifications, track their in-app activity
and the way they’re utilizing your product)

Let your notifications invoke emotions. Don’t create that obvious
‘you have 1 notification’ or ‘there’s a message for you to see’
update. The tip is to keep it short and at the same time as
descriptive as possible with the hue of intrigue. Check out
neat notifications examples compilation by Leanplum

Too many notifications will turn your product into some kind of a
promo app. Send only the most important updates and messages. Let
user determine the priority of notifications and whether they would
like to receive some of them at all

Keep notifications simple in design and provide them with native
look and feel.

You certainly don’t want your customers and users to have this
Lisa-Simpson-bored-face when using your marketplace app.

The rule is - don’t overdo...

Well, no explanations are needed.

Summarizing all said above

We hope that this article has shed some light on the notifications realm
and
various types of mobile app notifications for marketplaces. Here we’ve tried to answer such questions, as what mobile push
notifications best practices are, how in-app messaging works, and how
to create SMS alert system and email notification system.